Erythromycin (14-membered ring macrolide) is difficult to use as an anti-inflammatory agent since it simultaneously has an anti-inflammatory action and an antibacterial action. To solve this problem, a pseudoerythromycin derivative (12-membered ring, see THE KITASATO INSTITUTE, EM700 series, WO2002/14338 and WO2004/39823) having an anti-inflammatory action but free of an antibacterial action has been reported. A representative compound is EM703 shown by the following formula:

The above-mentioned pseudoerythromycin derivative has a problem in that its pharmacological action may not be sufficiently exhibited by oral administration, since the derivative is partly decomposed by an acid and becomes comparatively unstable.
A dihydro form obtained by reducing to solve the problem is stable to acid and shows good pharmacological action by oral administration. While Faghih R, Nellans H N, Lartey P A, Petersen A, Marsh K, Bennani Y L, Plattner J J. Preparation of 9-deoxo-4″-deoxy-6,9-epoxyerythromycin lactams “motilactides”: potent and orally active prokinetic agents. Bioorg Med Chem. Lett. 1998, 8(7):805-10 describes dihydropseudoerythromycin derivatives, all of them are 4″-dehydroxy forms of cladinose (sugar at the 3-position). The document describes that the dihydropseudoerythromycin derivatives show a weak gastrointestinal motility-promoting activity, but does not describe an anti-inflammatory action.